Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Malice

Zhou Zhou kept his face smooth and gave a small shake of the hand behind his back.

The team members exchanged glances and lowered their weapons, the tension draining just enough to keep from snapping.

One of the female team members deliberately raised her voice, making it sound casual, almost bored. “What is this? Didn’t you say there was a tunnel? Who digs a pit this big?”

Zhou Zhou played along, voice hard. “These two look suspicious. And I don’t see any injured aberrants. Could be a trap.”

The man in the pit snapped, panic flaring. “There are aberrants! At least a dozen! They’re all half-dead down here! Come down—we’ll kill them together and split the bonus!”

The female team member—Xiao Li—tilted her head, all sharp posture and soft acting. She could sound sweet even while baiting someone into a bad choice. “We’re already here. Why not go down and take a look?”

Zhou Zhou snorted. “This hole’s deep. How do we get down? Look at you two—maybe you can’t even climb out yourselves. And now you want to trick us into dropping in after you.”

“There’s another way out,” the man insisted. “But it’s a long detour. Coming down here is faster!”

Then his eyes narrowed, suspicious. “You’re the people from the forum, right? Which one are you? Spirited Girl Li Kui?”

Zhou Zhou’s expression twisted like he’d swallowed something rotten.

Feng Ling stepped closer to the edge and peered down, curiosity cutting through the stale garage air. “Which one of you is Chao Qiang Chao?”

“I am.” The man lifted his phone and waved it like proof. “I just posted photos in the group. Look and you’ll know I’m telling the truth.”

Zhou Zhou’s patience frayed. “You post now? Where were you earlier? I messaged. I called. You didn’t answer.”

“The signal’s bad down here,” the man shot back. “What do you want me to do?”

Feng Ling pulled out her phone. In the group chat, a new message sat unread—photos from Chao Qiang Chao.

Bodies lay sprawled on the ground, flash bleaching everything into harsh black-and-white. Limbs looked wrong in the glare, shadows too sharp, edges too jagged. From the picture alone, it was hard to tell what they were—aberrants or humans.

Feng Ling turned to show Huang Fu Miao Miao—then froze.

Huang Fu Miao Miao was trembling. Not the ordinary shake of fear, but something deeper, like her nerves were reacting to a frequency only she could hear.

“What’s wrong?” Feng Ling asked, reaching out to touch her forehead. Warm. No fever.

Huang Fu Miao Miao lifted her head, face bloodless. Two words scraped out of her throat. “Malice…”

Feng Ling’s mind clicked.

Devils could sense malice.

“It’s strong,” Huang Fu Miao Miao whispered, shoulders hunching in on herself. “Really strong. It’s… down there.” Her eyes shone like she was fighting tears.

Zhou Zhou heard the exchange and came over, voice lowered. “Something wrong?”

Feng Ling stared into the pit.

Of course something’s wrong. And of course we have to go down.

The polluted entity was probably beneath them. They couldn’t leave it. Even if they couldn’t kill it, they needed eyes on it—needed information. Otherwise, even if Su Yu Qing brought in heavy weapons, it would be blind bombing. Concrete, civilians, monsters—everything turned to rubble in the same blast.

The man below grew impatient, his voice rising. “Are you coming down or not? Stop wasting time! I’ve waited all day! If you wait longer, what if those aberrants recover? You know their recovery is fast. If my brother and I were strong enough, we wouldn’t still be waiting—we’d have claimed the bonus already!”

Zhou Zhou listened without reacting. His gaze slid over the team members.

They all looked back at him. Waiting.

He’d squeezed the man for what he could. The act had reached its limit. Any more and it would start to look like fear.

“All right,” Zhou Zhou said, voice flat. “Stop rushing us. I’ll get a rope. I’m coming down.”

The rope was already there.

Qin Liang wrapped one end around a concrete pillar and passed the other to Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou tested the tension, then wound the rope around his left hand a few times. He looked at Feng Ling. “I go first. You bring up the rear.”

Feng Ling nodded.

Huang Fu Miao Miao looked up at her with that miserable, pleading gaze that said, without words: Please. Can I stay up here?

Feng Ling didn’t soften.

The thin strip of trust she’d built with Huang Fu Miao Miao wasn’t enough to let her out of sight. Not down here. Not with aberrants prowling and a polluted entity lurking.

If Huang Fu Miao Miao ran, that was bad. If she ran and called others in to stab them in the back, it was worse.

Feng Ling liked danger, sure. But chasing danger alone and dragging Inspection Bureau personnel into it were two different things. If this went sideways, she wanted Huang Fu Miao Miao where she could see her.

And if Huang Fu Miao Miao’s ability could sense malice… it might save them.

Zhou Zhou gripped the rope, hopped into the pit, and slid down with practiced ease.

Qin Liang followed.

Then Xiao Li.

Then a male team member, Cao Hong Yi.

Last was Feng Ling.

She bent, hoisted Huang Fu Miao Miao onto her back like dead weight that could still scream, and dropped over the edge. One hand on the rope, one boot braced on the wall—she slid down fast.

The pit swallowed light.

For a moment, everyone was only shapes in blackness—faces erased, bodies reduced to movement and breath. In the dark, they could’ve been anyone. Or anything.

Feng Ling’s mind flicked back to the quest line: Deep in a pitch-black cave…

Yeah. Pitch-black.

Click.

Qin Liang’s military-grade headlamp snapped on, a hard blade of white that carved the darkness apart.

The beam swept over the two men and made them fully visible.

They looked wrecked—skin sallow, eyes bruised with dark circles, like they hadn’t seen sun in days. The light hit them and tears welled instantly, reflexive and ugly. Their clothes were filthy with dirt and sweat, hanging loose and greasy, giving off a sour, rancid stink.

And the way they smiled—half-smirk, half-grimace—didn’t fit any normal situation.

Feng Ling pinched Huang Fu Miao Miao lightly, a silent question: Are they aberrants?

Huang Fu Miao Miao pressed her lips together and shook her head.

Not aberrants.

Feng Ling frowned. Then what—ordinary humans?

It didn’t make it better.

“I’m Chao Qiang Chao from the forum,” the older-looking man said, forcing cheer into his voice. “Just call me Brother Chao.”

He pointed to the younger man beside him. “This is my brother, Fang Ye.”

Fang Ye looked like he wanted to fold into the ground. “H-hello. I’m Fang Ye. You can call me Little Ye.”

Feng Ling studied them, then spoke lightly, like she wasn’t standing in a hole that reeked of sweat and something worse. “You don’t look that old. Don’t make us call you ‘Brother.’ I’ll call you Little Chao and Little Ye.”

Brother Chao’s smile froze, tension flashing in his eyes before he shoved it down.

Feng Ling didn’t care. Her tone stayed even. “Little Chao. Where are the aberrants? Take us to them. You were in such a hurry a second ago.”

“…Up ahead,” Brother Chao said.

He turned and walked first. In the sweep of the headlamp, his expression looked sharp and mean—then the shadows swallowed it again.

Zhou Zhou watched him go, then angled closer to Fang Ye instead. “Little Ye. What’s with this pit? How did you find it?”

Fang Ye hunched his shoulders and followed behind Brother Chao, voice low. “We work at a nearby car wash. We came over to retrieve a customer’s car and saw the pit. We got curious and walked closer, and the edge collapsed… The two of us fell in. We couldn’t climb out, so we started looking for another exit…”